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Chart of the day: Can pharmaceuticals revive Singapore’s flagging exports?

NODX dropped for the fifth straight month in November.

Biomedical production remains the lone bright spot in Singapore's struggling manufacturing sector, according to a report by BMI Research.

BMI Research said that Singapore's biomedical sector should fare relatively well despite the transitory downturn in the extremely volatile pharmaceuticals segment.

"Singapore's strengths in R&D and investment will keep the city-state at the forefront of the biomedical industry in southeast Asia, and its business environment (further bolstered by the best legal and physical infrastructures in the region) will remain extremely attractive to MNCs and talented individuals alike despite the ongoing shift in the government's foreign labour policies," said BMI Research.

However, BMI Research warned that the city-state's trade prospects remain dim in 2016, as reflected by a fifth straight month of non-oil domestic exports (NODX) contraction in November.

"We believe that Singapore's electronics manufacturing sector will continue to struggle at the lower value added levels (lower end integrated circuits [ICs] production and data storage devices have been particularly hard hit over recent years) as firms grapple with a considerably tighter supply of low-to-mid skilled workers and the accompanying wage pressures," BMI Research said.

"We believe that Singapore's electronics manufacturing sector will continue to struggle at the lower value added levels (lower end integrated circuits [ICs] production and data storage devices have been particularly hard hit over recent years) as firms grapple with a considerably tighter supply of low-to-mid skilled workers and the accompanying wage pressures," the report added.

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